What Julia does for a living...

...can be found in this article: Living with a Star

I work on the Radiation Belt Storm Probes.

I love having a job that doesn't depend on the misery of humankind (when I did temp work I worked for the Probation Office/Child Support Division for San Bernardino County--not pleasant working with dead-beat parents). I love having a job that's looking forward to the future, the last undiscovered country (and yes, that was a Star Trek reference)

Yippee Skippee!

Well, Dus has come and gone. They (Dus and Mar) apparently did a little sight-seeing in Salem, Mass yesterday morning--where they bought matching t-shirts (Good girls go to Heaven, Bad girls go to Salem). So cute. Dus called just as I was leaving work to let me know that they were just getting to New York City. Yup, right at rush hour. Not so much fun. So I went home, fixed myself dinner, and did some basic chores around the house. I called Dus at 7:00pm--They had just gotten in the correct lane to cross the George Washington Bridge (sigh). I went outside and mowed my lawn (well, ok, 2/3rds of it). Then I called again at 9:00pm--they were just passing Trenton on the Jersey Turnpike. So I watched the rest of The Rat Patrol tv series (my friend Helen had leant it to me--it's my current obsession) with Kitty (she really likes The Rat Patrol for some reason), and got their beds ready. Then Dus called at 11:00pm--they were here!!! Yay!!!

They were so tired. They unwound for a bit, then Dus got to open her Birthday Present (notepapter, musical pencil, and a magnet from the Mozart Museum in Salzburg as well as a picture of Jason Dohring whom she loves), then we headed for bed around midnight. Kitty wanted to go outside so badly, and finally escaped at some point so she had to stay outside last night. Serves her right, plus both Dus and Mar are allergic to cats. Kitty wasn't very happy about that either (as anyone who has met her can attest, Kitty is very social--she loves people).

I wasn't able to take them to dinner, so we decided to go out for breakfast at Bob Evans. I found out as we got there that they had made a goal to stop for meals at restaurants they hadn't heard of before--Bob Evans fit the bill. As did Panera Bread, where they ate last night (don't they have those in CA?). So we had a little fun time. I wish they could have stayed longer, but they are now off on their way to Beckie's house. I tried to get them on their way sooner this morning than yesterday morning, so hopefully they can be to Beckie's before dinnertime.

Those two are so silly, so much fun. Dus blamed much of her silliness on the Mountain Dew she'd been drinking, but I'm thinking it has a lot to do with the company as well. Maybe they can come visit again someday, when they can stay longer...

A new way to waste time...

I have discovered Sudoku.

I spend hours solving these little numeric puzzles.

I bought a book and whenever I'm waiting for something (commercials, the computer to boot up, the doctor's office, etc) I work on my latest puzzle.

The worst part is that I found this game online. Now I can play whenever I want.

I shared it with my sister. So she could share it with her kids. Because all kids need to know their numbers, right?

I am such an enabler. I've just shared it will anyone who reads my blog, too.

sigh. I'm such a bad, bad girl...

Happy Dance!

Dustie's coming, Dustie's coming! Dustie's coming to visit!! Well, more of a stopover on her way from Maine to California, as she helps her bfitwww drive home, but still!!! Oh, Dustie is my youngest Sister. She's also my biggest sister (at 5'9"), so I'm not allowed to call her my 'little' sister. She and her friend will be here Monday the 18th :D and her birthday is the 21st, so I can give her her birthday present IN PERSON!!! Haven't done that for YEARS!!! Yay!!!

:::goes off and sings a happy song:::
really should return to work at some point, though...

All done!

Ok, finally finshed all the posts from my trip. Still working on getting the extended version (i.e. all the pictures) on flikr, should have them up there in a couple days if my home computer cooperates. Start here: In New York City
Enjoy!

Memory Game

From Kristen's blog:

Some of my fellow bloggers are playing this memory game. You choose your favorite memory with them and post it on their blog. Well all of my blogger friends and I haven't known each other very long so there may not be any fun memories to reflect on, but if you have one of me please tell...I would love to hear it.

(I tried this a month ago and only got two posts, so let's see if anyone will post this time. Or maybe I'm just not that memorable...)

Dancing

Happiness is...

Dancing around the world

If you don't have Astronomy Picture of the Day bookmarked, I can highly recommend it. And they archive everything so you don't have to check it every day!

And... she's back!!

(The Passion Theater in Oberammergau, Germany)

Yes, I'm back. And I'm putting together my posts for my trip, by date (so you can read them in order if you like). the short version would be, I had a fabulous time. I hope I get the opportunity to do something like this again someday.

(Me at Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany)

At last, the Festival Day is here!

June 29, 2008

We had some time this morning, after breakfast, before the Festival began at 10:00 am, so I walked around the villaige. This house is right across the street from our hotel. See all the lovely flowers! Murals on the buildings; just beautiful.
In the shop windows are the wood carvings. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), the shops didn't open until after the Festival had started.
The Last Supper
The ever-present mountain (harder to see the cross in this one)
This little display of the three wise men was so adorable. I guess it's a good thing the shops were closed, or Imight have had to bring this one home with me as well.
The other side of the display.
More carvings than you could ever hope to see. Almost everything (except the small stuff) is hand made by the craftspeople in the village.
Another building's mural
And another.
At last! Here comes the band, to open the festival! I found out later that the choirs were supposed to walk in this parade, but only about half of our choir got the word. The rest of us got to watch :D
The band, in traditional German clothing, played for us for a bit outside.
Then they moved inside, as did we.
Here is the Mayor of Oberammergau, welcoming us to Oberammergau and the Passion for Music Festival.
The first choir was our 'Red' choir. (since all the choirs were good, I'm going to try to refrain from repeating that over and over)
This choir is also 'red', but they are from Hungary. They have won several awards singing together.
Then the "Blue" choir entertained us.
Another Red choir? Alas, no. This is a group from Innesbruk, Austria (not sure if I spelled that right). They did several yodeling songs, very fun.

This Jazz band is from South Africa. They really livened things up!

We performed after the South African group--alas, I have no pictures of us. However, I do have a clip from a person who's a friend of a choir member: the Purple Choir Not bad for only a couple days of rehearsal. Good luck finding me--I'm hiden by a folder, all I can see is my hair! :D

Another group from Innesbruk, same conductor, some of the same participants, and yes, there was more yodeling.
This men's chorus was from Oberammergau and a neighboring village. No yodeling this time, but still very good.
Last came the ProjectChoir, I think many of these people were from The Netherlands. They were singing excerpts from The Messiah, so they invited anyone who wanted to participate to join in. Thus you can see several people from previous choirs in the day participating. Their last piece was The Hallelujah Chorus, for which the conductor invited everyone who knew it to come on stage. I relented and went up for that.
I stayed for the rehearsal of "Ode to Joy", the piece we were going to sing for the Mayor at the reception that evening. It was a lot of fun singing with everyone all together.
After our rehearsal; more pictures.

The reception--and our dinner--was held here.
I wasn't the only one to buy a dirndl! Several women did; this is Becky's.
An international flavor to the affair (here the Jazz band is setting up to participate in the final song of the evening)
Pam--in her dirndl! If I'd thought, I would have gone to put one of mine on!
Socializing with the other groups.

Dinner time! Lots of new friends!
And a last shot outside the Ammergerhaus
June 29, 2008

I got up at 2:00 am, after staying up to 11:00 pm packing, and got ready to go. The busses were there before 3:00 am, we got loaded onto them and made our way to the Munich airport. Alas, our lovely time in Europe is over!
Dreaded plane, taking us away from this wonderful place!

I will have to return someday.

Oberammergau and... Munich again?

Friday, June 27, 2008

Starting out in Munich... the view from our sixth-floor hotel room.
This is the other direction. Looks kinda nice, misty and cool, doesn't it?
Today's the day we went to Oberammergau, in the Alps. This mountain is just outside the village. Can you see the cross at the top? Apparently it's quite the thing to hike all the way up there.The Hotel where we stayed. Actually, only about a third of us stayed here. The hotels in Oberammergau were not large enough to house all of us. In fact, that's why we stayed in Munich an extra night--there was no room at the inn(s).
We actually had some free time here, almost an hour and a half. So I actually walked around a bit. This is the woodcarver who made the present I picked up for my sister for Christmas.
Some bird houses outside his shop
Alas! I sucumbed and bought a Dirndl! Two, actually, but this is the 'pretty' one. The other one you're more likely to see me wear to work or church, as it's more 'normal' looking.

This is Jessica, our other tour guide. She's very sweet. And made a wonderful recommendation for lunch that I had to try (not sure exactly what it was, but there was bratwurst).

That afternoon we took a tour of the Passion Theater.
In 1633, the Black Plague came to Oberammergau. The people made a vow to God that if He would take the plague from their city, they would perform the Passion of the Christ every ten years in the open air. In 1634 was their first performance, near the village church. Since then, they have moved it to the 'decade' year, so the next performance will be in 2010. Here is the stage, still open to the air (although they are constructing a 'hood' for the 'off' years). They do perform, regardless of weather, from March until September.
The audience gets a roof over their heads, though. The acoustics are amazing. Not quite as deep as in the cathedral we sang in, but good enough to not need microphones. They still perform without microphones or other electronic devices, trying to keep the performances as natural as possible.
On stage
Behind the scenes, we got to see the various props and costumes. Before the last performance in 2000 they redid all the costumes and most of the props. This table, though, has been used for over a hundred years for the Last Supper. The Menorah reminds us that Christ was a Jew.

Some of the costumes. Aren't they gorgeous?
I told her to turn and smile, so she did! I'm terrible with names, but this girl has the loveliest voice, and did the solo in "The Prayer of St Francis" that we sang.
The costumes used by the actor playing Jesus.
These are the guys who wrote the current script and music for the Passion play that is performed here. The only modifications in the last 200 years was about 30 years ago, taking out all the anti-Semitic sentiments.

time for a pose!

All the buildings had beautiful murals on them. I have more pictures that I took the following day. For now, though, we're on our way back to Munich...
I barely missed the cleft in the rock--you can sort of see it on the left side of the picture. There's a story about how a young man in Oberammergau was in love with a young woman the next village over. Even though no one was supposed to leave the village, because of the plague and the vow, he is said to have snuck through this cleft to meet up with his intended. Of course, the cleft doesn't actually go all the way through the cliff, so that's a problem...
We had dinner here, back in Munich. We're back here so we can perform for the Munich Saints.
At last! finally caught a car with the flags! Yes, the Germans made it to the final round, but then they got tromped by Spain (oh sadness!)
There were two other choirs organized by the same company to come tour Europe and sing in the Passion for Music Festival. Two of the choirs were defined by where we toured. This is the "Red" choir, which started out in Switzerland.

This is the "Blue" choir, which is a choir that actually meets regularly in Pheonix, Arizona. You can tell, because they actually had all their songs memorized, and had rehearsed more than the day and a half that we had.
My choir, the "Purple" choir. Can you see me? Second row, just to the left of the conductor, Dr Allred.
A better picture of the choir (thanks to Bro A for taking it for me!)
Reela and I, outside the church building, before making our way back to Oberammergau. The Saints were so good to us, they gave us a very nice snack for our way home.